Disney backing them up again; Jonases promoted into a sitcom

DETAILS

“JONAS”

Real pop stars play fictional pop stars

When: 8 p.m. tomorrow

Where: Disney Channel

The pop-music stars Jonas Brothers – Kevin, Joe and Nick – are about to become TV stars.

Not that TV is new territory for them. Disney Channel is largely responsible for their success – through music videos and an appearance in last summer's “Camp Rock” – so it makes sense that the cable network will be the home of their first weekly TV series, “Jonas.”

In the program, the brothers play a fictional fraternal rock band just trying to live normal lives despite their fame. Their TV characters have the same first names, but their last name is Lucas. Executive producer Michael Curtis said the band is called Jonas because in the show the boys live on Jonas Street.

“We've tried to create a fusion of a sitcom and a music video and use original Jonas Brothers songs as the foundation to glue it together,” said Gary Marsh, entertainment president of Disney Channels Worldwide.

At the Television Critics Association winter press tour in January, Marsh described “Jonas” as a cross between “The Monkees” and “Flight of the Conchords”; producers compared the show to The Beatles' “A Hard Day's Night.”

During one rainy beach trip, the brothers watched episodes of “The Monkees” and “The Partridge Family,” so they had some idea of what to expect from “Jonas.”

“I think for us, we were excited to incorporate our music into this process,” Kevin Jonas said. “It adds a whole other element for us. That's where our passion is in our hearts.”

The littlest “bonus Jonas,” Frankie, will also appear, along with their real-life head of security, Big Rob Feggans, who plays a similar role in the fictional universe of “Jonas.”

For the show's original concept, the brothers played spies.

“Their cover was blown by Dick Cheney,” executive producer Curtis joked. “The spy concept was very big and very ambitious and it started to not feel quite right. As the band got bigger and bigger, doing a show that captured more of their real lives and trying to turn that into a more grounded, real version of what they might be doing became more interesting to do and more fun to do.”

During the Disney Channel media conference in January, Nick was the quickest to answer questions on behalf of the brothers. He also said he's had the most difficult time transitioning to acting.

“I'm kind of a perfectionist. I'm very hard on myself when it comes to the acting,” Nick said, adding that it's been difficult to translate his own personality to the TV character that's loosely based on him. “In real life I have a very dry sense of humor and sometimes I can't master that on camera. I'm still learning.”

As for how they keep grounded, the brothers said they could go wild and trash their guitars onstage, but then “it would be on YouTube,” Joe said.

The Internet is clearly on their minds when they were asked about rumors that surface, like the notion that one of the brothers might go solo.